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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Blue Kitchen: Before and After

At this moment I would like to share the project I am probably most proud of--our kitchen redo!

Suffice it to say that when we bought the house I hated the kitchen--couldn't belive we just paid THAT MUCH for something I didn't like. But now I love it! :) It went from dark and dated to light and airy. Makes me happy just looking at it.

Check out the before and afters:

Of course, I forgot to take quality pictures of the before kitchen (who would want them anyway?) so I had to lift them from a Word doc, but you get the idea.

Here's what we did:

1) We really liked the splash board--white subway tile with the smaller tiles in blues and grays. We kept that.

2) We painted the tan-ish walls a beautiful blue (Valspar 4008-3A Rising Tide). Now this was not our first blue...the first blue was much too bright, so we toned it down a bit, and now I really love the blue. yea!

3) The biggest job: we painted all the cupboards white. I couldn't believe how long this process took! Take it from me, just do it right the first time: Wash them, degloss them, sand them a big to make them not so smooth, apply primer (we did a non-oil-based primer, and I think that was a mistake. It took 5 coats of quality primer to stop the wood stain from leaking through. If I ever do it again, I'm definitely going to try oil-based primer), and then paint them. We used Valspar ultra white latex enamel paint for kitchen and bath and used a smooth roller to apply it. It took 4-5 coats, but we finally got everything well-coated and ready to put back together (we took the doors off first).

4) Next thing that had to go was the flooring. You can't tell from the pictures all that well, but it was a dark, rubbery wood-print linoleum. My husband put his handy-man hat on and installed laminate flooring from Home Depot (Hampton Bay Brilliant Maple). The difference was amazing--I hadn't fully realized how much dark flooring could darken a whole space.

5) New counter top. You'll notice from the before pictures that it was a maizy-yellow color--not a good match for blue walls and white cupboards. So, we picked out a new laminate counter top that had blues and grays and little hints of honey-color in it to add some warmth and to match the flooring. My husband watched a few youtube videos about installation, had his dad come help and voila! New countertops. Price to have professionals install it for you ~$26/square foot. Price to do it yourself (after all supplies): ~$3/square foot. So worth doing it yourself if you have the time. He also used a hard-wood edge rather than laminate edge around the counter just because we thought it looked nicer.

6) Bought a new fridge (didn't have one at all at first)!

Anyway, we love the transformation, love the kitchen. :)

I'm still kind of working on decorating. I like how clean it looks, so I don't want to do a lot, but perhaps something for the beind-the-sink window. Maybe something for the sliding glass door in the dining room? Perhaps a shelf or big clock or plates or embroidery hoops with fabric or something cute for the wall in the dining room (the wall you can't see). We'll see.